While this alliance is promising, there are important challenges and risks that St George, REAlloys, and stakeholders must manage to ensure Araxá’s rare earths growth becomes real and sustainable.

One major challenge is the metallurgical complexity of rare earth extraction and processing. Rare earths come in many individual elements; recovering them, separating impurities, ensuring purity, and producing magnet-grade products is not trivial. Flowsheet design, test work, pilot scale trials, and scale-up must succeed and deliver acceptable yields, costs, and environmental performance. Any inefficiencies or unexpected impurities could erode economic margins.